Moderate Or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution Research Articles

Research on characteristic chemical time scales for MILD combustion based on partition PCA method

MILD combustion represents a more moderated reaction process in contrast to traditional combustion. The employment of hydrogen-containing syngas as fuel introduces a spectrum of intricate and diverse chemical reactions. This complexity renders traditional reliance on characteristic chemical timescales less appropriate for the analysis and modeling of Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion phenomena. In response to this inadequacy, a new technique named the partition Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method was developed. This method begins by segmenting combustion regions based on the reaction intensity, then extracts characteristic chemical time scales for each of these individual regions through the application of the PCA method. The innovative method was subsequently applied to investigate the chemical traits of the CH4/H2 mixture in both MILD and standard combustion processes with respect to the time scale. The insights obtained from this novel approach demonstrate that the characteristic chemical time scales (τc) deduced through this methodology exhibit a more accurate representation of the intrinsic characteristics of MILD combustion within the reaction region. This approach enhances the comprehension of the interplay between turbulence and chemistry in MILD combustion contexts. Furthermore, it establishes a solid groundwork for forthcoming research endeavors in the field of MILD combustion. Furthermore, the τc calculations presented in this paper have been derived mathematically, confirming their widespread applicability.

Furnace MILD combustion versus its open counterpart in hot coflow

The open jet flame in hot co-flow (JHC) has been frequently utilized for fundamental investigations of Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion due to its controllable conditions and relatively easy measurement capabilities. However, practical MILD combustion must take place within a combustor that is enclosed. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the similarity and disparity of combustion characteristics between two flame configurations. This issue is addressed currently. Specifically, we investigate the flow mixing, ignition, and combustion, as well as emission characteristics of non-premixed and premixed JHC and cylindrical furnace (FUR) flames at various values of the environmental temperature (Te) and central jet Reynolds number (Re). For the open non-premixed flames, we employ both previous single-tube JHC (SJHC) combustor and presently modified JHC (MJHC) one that uses the same nozzle configuration as the FUR burner. It is revealed that significant differences occur in flow, combustion and emission characteristics between the SJHC and FUR cases. On the other hand, both non-premixed and premixed MJHC configurations exhibit high similarity to the corresponding FUR cases in terms of upstream flow mixing and combustion features. Moreover, different CO and NOx emissions result from open JHC and close furnace flames due to different post-combustion configuration and residence time. Accordingly, future experiments on non-premixed MJHC and premixed JHC flames are highly recommended for better understanding practical MILD combustion.

Experimental investigation of the effects of inlet high-swirl air preheating and dilution on kerosene flame

This study investigated the effects of co-flow air swirling on the combustion of Kerosene, as relatively heavy fuel, under preheated and diluted air conditions. Various factors affecting the flame structure, such as preheating temperature, dilution, swirl number, and airflow rate were studied using the upgraded MILD (Moderate or Intense Low-Oxygen Dilution) combustion tester of Sharif University of Technology (SMSTR). This tester, which is symmetrically axial, provides co-flow air with the desired temperature, swirl number, and dilution for a liquid fuel spray burner. The flame characteristics was investigated through direct photography and chemiluminescence. The results show that the stability range significantly increases with the air swirling, while the flame length decreases. Enhancement of combustion quality and more complete combustion of fuel were observed with preheating. Preheating resulted in geometric changes in the appearance of the flame, specially reducing flame lift-off and the front view area in high airflow. A decrease in the air oxygen content causes a general change in the structure of the flame, resulting in a shorter and more lifted one compared to non-diluted condition. The chemiluminescence images of the flame also revealed weaker and more uniform emission pattern with the inlet high-swirl air preheating and dilution. By utilizing around 15 % oxygen content dilution, preheating at around 656 K, and a swirl number of 0.8, the combustion zone exhibited similarities to the MILD combustion mode, suggesting the achievement of MILD combustion. The high swirl concept allowed higher dilution limits (about 12 %) and reduced preheating requirements (approximately 11 %) in achieving the MILD combustion regime compared to the previous study conducted without swirl conditions. In contrast to the non-swirl mode flame, the flame in this study transitioned completely to a MILD-like condition.

On the Definition of Reaction Progress Variable in Exhaust Gas Recirculation Type Turbulent MILD Combustion of Methane and n-Heptane

Three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulations of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR)-type Moderate or Intense Low Oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion of homogeneous mixtures of methane- and n-heptane–air have been conducted with skeletal chemical mechanisms. The suitability of different choices of reaction progress variable (which is supposed to increase monotonically from zero in the unburned gas to one in fully burned products) based on the mass fractions of different major species and non-dimensional temperature have been analysed in detail. It has been found that reaction progress variable definitions based on oxygen mass fraction, and linear combination of CO, CO2, H2 and H2O mass fractions (i.e. cO2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${c}_{O2}$$\\end{document} and cc\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${c}_{c}$$\\end{document}) capture all the extreme values of the major species in the range between zero and one under MILD conditions. A reaction progress variable based on fuel mass fraction is found to be unsuitable for heavy hydrocarbons, such as n-heptane, since the fuel breaks down to smaller molecules before the major reactants (products) are completely consumed (formed). Moreover, it has been found that the reaction rates of cO2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${c}_{O2}$$\\end{document} and cc\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${c}_{c}$$\\end{document} exhibit approximate linear behaviours with the heat release rate in both methane and n-heptane MILD combustion. The interdependence of different mass fractions in the EGR-type homogeneous mixture combustion is considerably different from the corresponding 1D unstretched premixed flames. The current findings indicate that the tabulated chemistry approach based on premixed laminar flames may need to be modified to account for EGR-type MILD combustion. Furthermore, both the reaction rate and scalar dissipation rate of cO2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${c}_{O2}$$\\end{document} and cc\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${c}_{c}$$\\end{document} are found to be non-linearly related in both methane and n-heptane MILD combustion cases but the qualitative nature of this correlation for n-heptane is different from that in methane. This suggests that the range of validity of SDR-based turbulent combustion models can be different for homogeneous MILD combustion of different fuels.

Combustion stage configurations for intercooled regenerative reheat gas turbine systems

Low-power gas turbines have been widely used for decades as combined heat and power. In the recent years, they received increasing interest with respect to applications such as range extenders in the automotive sector and for alternative fuels use.In this framework, the present work analyzes the combustion stages optimization of an intercooled regenerative reheat gas-turbine system, for a low power gas turbine. In particular, a thorough analysis was carried out to identify the optimal combustion system configuration in order to ensure suitable turbine inlet temperature and global efficiency of the thermodynamic cycle higher than 40%. Starting from the typical intercooled regenerative reheat gas turbine system, several configurations were analyzed. In particular, air bypass systems were introduced as suitable strategy able to tune the combustion chamber working temperatures and turbine inlet ones, according to operating requirements and combustion unit specifications. Furthermore, different bypass ratios were considered, analyzing the effectiveness of air bypass systems in terms of efficient combustion and reduced pollutant emissions (CO and NOx).An innovative cyclonic flow burner, assumed to operate under MILD (Moderate or Intense Low oxygen Dilution) combustion conditions, was considered as main combustion unit and in the reheat process. In this respect, the choice was motivated by the well-established high fuel flexibility and very low pollutants emission typical of such a combustion unit and the MILD process.Analyses were performed considering methane as fuel, which is currently the most used fuel in land-based applications. However, results here reported have general validity and may be directly applied with respect to the use of innovative energy vectors.

Flame self-interactions in MILD combustion of homogeneous and inhomogeneous mixtures

Flame self-interaction (FSI) events in Moderate or Intense Low-Oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion of homogeneous and inhomogeneous mixtures of methane and oxidiser have been analysed using three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). The simulations have been conducted at the same global equivalence ratio (⟨ϕ⟩=0.8\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\langle \\phi \\rangle = 0.8$$\\end{document}) for different levels of O2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathrm {O_2}$$\\end{document} concentration (dilution) and initial turbulence intensities. It has been reported that both homogeneous and inhomogeneous mixture MILD combustion cases exhibit significant occurrences of FSI events, with the peak frequency of FSI events occurring towards the burned gas side in all cases. Moreover, the frequency of FSI events increases with increasing dilution level and turbulence intensity, but the presence of mixture inhomogeneity leads to a reduction in total FSI events. In all cases, the cylindrical FSI topologies (i.e. tunnel formation and tunnel closure) were found to have a higher likelihood of occurrence compared to spherical FSI topologies (i.e. unburned and burned gas pockets). The geometries of FSI topologies were also analysed using the mean and Gaussian curvatures. It has been shown that the inward propagating spherical FSI topologies (i.e. unburned gas pockets) are associated with negative mean curvature, while outward propagating spherical FSI topologies (i.e. burned gas pockets) are associated with positive mean curvature. Moreover, tunnel formation (tunnel closure) FSI topologies predominantly exhibit either elliptic geometries with positive (negative) mean curvature or hyperbolic saddle geometries with negative (positive) mean curvature. It has been shown for the first time in MILD combustion that the mean values of kinematic restoration and dissipation terms in the transport equation of the magnitude of the reaction progress variable conditional upon the reaction progress variable tend to cancel each other in the vicinity of the critical points associated with cylindrical topologies. Thus, the singular contributions in these terms, which are obtained from analytical descriptions in the vicinity of tunnel formation and tunnel closure topologies, do not affect the balance equation of the magnitude of the gradient of the reaction progress variable. Consequently, there is no need for a separate model treatment for singularities in modelling approaches based on the magnitude of the gradient of the reaction progress variable. The FSI events in the reaction dominated and propagating flame regions of MILD combustion have also been analysed for the first time. It has been found that more FSI events occur in the reaction dominated region, particularly towards the burned gas side. However, the majority of spherical FSI topologies are found in the propagating flame region. The findings from this study indicate that turbulence intensity, dilution level and mixture inhomogeneity effects need to be considered in any attempt to extend flame surface-based modelling approaches to MILD combustion.

Enhanced mitigation of inhalable particles and fine particle-bound PAHs from a novel hazardous waste-power plant candidate

Emissions of the inhalable particle (dp < 10 μm, PM10) and their harmful compositions from combustion sources have high potential on health risk with nearly no regulation. This study investigates the particle size distribution (PSD), as well as the removal mechanism of PM10 and fine particle (FP)-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the flue gas of a hazardous waste thermal treatment system. It has ultralow regulated emission and becomes a candidate of power generation module. A series of the advanced scrubbers, cyclonic demister, and baghouse was equipped for multi-pollutant control. The moderate or intense low oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion effectively inhibited the PM2.5 generation by volumetric oxidation. Advanced scrubbers removed PM1, PM2.5, and PM10 by 85.24, 68.68, and 97.60%, respectively, which achieved by local supersaturation, heterogeneous condensation of water vapor, and the growth of fine PM. Moreover, the scrubbers effectively scavenged the course PM10 containing the high-molecular-weight PAH homologs onto the water phase but promoted the condensation and absorption of the lighter homologs onto the fine particle surface (dp ∼5.3 μm). The size window (dp = 0.3–1.0 μm) of the minimum efficiency reporting value of a BH filtration led to the peak of FP-PAH mass and BaP equivalent (BaPeq) toxicity at dp = 0.1–0.4 and 0.1–0.8 μm, respectively. Consequently, the synergy of MILD combustion and the SCB-CYC-BH system effectively inhibited the PM2.5, PM10, PM2.5-PAHs, and FP-PAH levels from a waste thermal treatment process and further mitigated the potential health risk.

Ignition characteristics of the high-velocity pulverized coal jet in MILD combustion mode: Experiments and prediction improvements

The influence of high jet velocity on the ignition characteristics of pulverized coal is very important for the Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion technology of pulverized coal. This paper conducts experimental and numerical simulation research on the ignition characteristics of the pulverized coal jet in a high-temperature environment based on the Hencken-type flat flame burner. The results show that when the ambient temperature is 1873 K and the ambient oxygen mole fraction is 5 %, the ignition delay distance of the pulverized coal jet decreases as the jet velocity increases from 15 m/s to 100 m/s for the formation of MILD combustion. The adoption of the turbulent particle heat transfer model and the non-spherical particle motion model effectively improves the prediction of particle dispersion, ignition delay, and reaction zone in the high-velocity coal jet flame. The enhancement of gas–solid heat transfer by turbulent fluctuation plays a dominant role in advancing the coal ignition in the high-velocity jet, while the non-spherical shape of coal particles mainly improves the uniformity of reaction distribution. The influence of ignition characteristics in the high-velocity jet on the MILD combustion formation of pulverized coal has been also analyzed in detail.

Effects of Hydrogen Addition, Oxygen Level, and Strain Rate on Combustion Characteristics of CH4/H2 in Staged MILD Combustion

In this article, the effects of hydrogenation amount (0–80%), oxygen content (14–18%), and strain rate (10–1000 s−1) on the emission characteristics of NO and CO in moderate or intense low‐oxygen dilution (MILD) fractional combustion are studied under the actual working conditions of gas turbine (T = 723 K, P = 16.5 atm). The pathway of NO and CO production and the reaction with the greatest influence on their emissions are analyzed. In the findings, it is indicated that NO emissions are suppressed at lower hydrogen levels, while the addition of hydrogen leads to a decrease in CO emissions. Specifically, the key reaction for NO formation is H + NO + M = HNO + M, whereas CO emissions are primarily controlled by the direct reaction OH + CO = H + CO2. Furthermore, the reduction of oxygen levels effectively suppresses NO and CO emissions during MILD combustion. The variation in oxygen level exerts the greatest influence on the reaction rate of the NNH pathway. High concentrations of O2 are identified as the primary cause of elevated CO levels in MILD combustion. Finally, elevating the strain rate in MILD combustion demonstrates a mitigating effect on NO and CO emissions.

Estimation and testing of single-step oxidation reactions for hydrogen and methane in low-oxygen, elevated pressure conditions

Advanced combustion concepts, such as moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion, offer a reduction in NOx emissions and increased thermal efficiency. MILD is characterised by low-oxygen, high-temperature conditions, where finite-rate chemistry effects are significant. Modelling this regime using reduced or single-step chemistry remains a challenge in part due to the finite-rate chemistry. This work proposes a generalised method for assigning Arrhenius coefficients of a single-step reaction using the outputs of a detailed mechanism. Assigning the typical chemical conservation equation to a progress variable, activation energy and pre-exponential factor for an Arrhenius kinetics global reaction are determined for hydrogen and methane across a number of conditions, with the proposed method extended to n-heptane as well. The temperature exponent in the modified Arrhenius equation is determined by minimising the ignition delay error between detailed and single-step simulations. Functional forms of each coefficient are calculated from a multivariate regression, dependent on initial temperature, pressure, and oxidant mole fraction. The predicted mechanisms are compared against the detailed kinetics in closed homogeneous batch reactors, with comparisons for hydrogen extended to both laminar opposed flow diffusion flames, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Ignition delay and equilibrium temperature are both well predicted for all three fuels in the batch reactors. Notably, the negative temperature coefficient behaviour of n-heptane is successfully recreated with the single-step mechanism. Temperature and heat release of hydrogen flames are well captured in both opposed flow laminar flames, and in turbulent CFD simulations. The computational time was also significantly reduced through the single-step mechanisms, resulting in ∼100 times reduction in compute time for CFD simulations. The function form of the Arrhenius coefficients shows promise for extension outside of the ranges and fuels analysed herein, and presents interesting phenomena for exploring how initial reactant temperature and pressure influence the effective activation energy of an oxidation process.

Numerical analysis of the enrichment of CH4/H2 in ammonia combustion in a hot co-flow environment

A numerical investigation is conducted using OpenFOAM to study the characteristics of ammonia flames enriched with methane and hydrogen, influenced by a diluted co-flow (exhaust gas). The study aims to explore various flame characteristics, including fuel consumption, ignition delay time, lift-off height and position, temperature, and CO and NO emissions while maintaining a constant energy input of 5 kW. Non-stabilized flames are identified by analyzing the OH peak in the computational domain among ammonia flames enriched with CH4/H2 for different dilutions of O2 (6 %, 9 %, and 12 %). The study is structured into three stages of numerical simulations corresponding to stabilized flames: (1) no reaction, (2) reaction in the absence of O2, and (3) reaction with O2 to see the sole impact of the hot co-flow and local turbulence mixing on the primary cracking of ammonia. Furthermore, the rates of H2 and N2 formation resulting from the utilization of ammonia in the presence of hot co-flow are thoroughly examined. Additionally, the behavior of ammonia flames and CH4/H2-enriched ammonia flames under preheated air conditions (23 % O2) is analysed. Stable flames are observed in the co-flow at 12 % O2, displaying characteristics of Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion. Conversely, ammonia flames under preheated air conditions exhibit conventional flame behavior. Pure ammonia flames exhibit stronger temperature gradients and higher levels of CO and NO emissions. As the enrichment of NH3 with CH4/H2 increases, peak temperatures decrease while lift-off heights increase, indicating a transition towards more distributed flame structures. Notably, the instance with 40 % H2 enrichment exhibits lower NO emissions and a higher rate of ammonia consumption along with more distributive flame characteristics.

Assessment of MILD combustion in co/counter-swirl configuration using syngas as a fuel

Moderate or intense low oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion is investigated in a co/counter-swirl using OH∗-chemiluminescence, species measurements, OH planar laser-induced fluorescence (OH-PLIF), two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (2D-PIV), and microphone measurements. Experiments are performed in a two-stage combustor, where the first stage of combustor is catalytic stage and the second stage is the swirl stage (co/counter-swirl configuration). A fuel-rich syngas (20 % H2, 20 % CO, 12 % CO2, 2 % CH4, and 46 % N2) reacts with air in the catalytic stage. Then, the mixture of unconsumed syngas and products of catalytic combustion is supplied to the swirl stage where the mixture is burnt with oxidizer with varied oxygen concentration. The flame in the swirl stage is established by two concentric swirling streams where the inner stream is the hot gases from the catalytic stage, and the outer stream is the oxidizer. Co/counter-swirl flames are generated by changing the swirl direction of the inner stream. After achieving a stable flame, the macrostructure, flame steadiness, CO and NOx emissions, reaction zone distribution, and sound pressure level (SPL) are investigated at several oxygen concentrations (O2 = 13.13 %–21 %) with an aim to assess the MILD combustion mode in co/counter-swirl configuration.As the oxygen percentage decreases, the flame luminosity decreases for both co/counter-configuration. However, the reduction in luminosity is profound for co-swirl configuration. Clear distinctions between co and counter-swirl configurations are observed regarding flame height and stand-off height. Two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (2D-PIV) is utilized to understand these trends. The steadiness of the flame is investigated using standard deviations (SD) of OH∗-chemiluminescence images and global luminosity (I(t)). The flame steadiness is found to be improved as the oxygen concentration decreases. The OH-PLIF indicates the distributed nature of combustion. The NOx emission is found to be extremely low in all studied cases; however, the CO emission shows an increasing trend when O2 reduces. Finally, the sound pressure level and the dynamics stability are investigated using microphone measurements. The SPL decreases by ∼3 dB and ∼7 dB for the counter-swirl and co-swirl configuration, respectively. Furthermore, the frequency domain analysis suggests that the fundamental axial mode of the combustor is excited at high oxygen concentration. However, the unsteady combustion and chamber acoustics become decoupled at lower O2 concentrations. Thus, the present paper, for the first time, confirms that MILD combustion can be achieved in co/counter-swirl configuration, provided the oxygen concentration is low (∼13 %). The present study also establishes that the co-swirl configuration is more suitable than the counter-swirl for achieving the MILD combustion mode.

Sustainability of hydrogen-enriched methane MILD combustion over a wide range of hydrogen-blending ratios in a strongly heat-extracted well-stirred reactor

Moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion of methane blended with hydrogen offers a potential solution for gas-fired industrial furnaces and even boilers to realize rapid decarbonization while maintaining ultra-low NO emissions. In this work, the combustion mode map for identifying MILD combustion when burning CH4/H2 mixtures from pure methane to pure hydrogen is proposed, and then the sustainability of hydrogen-enriched methane MILD combustion over a wide range of hydrogen-blending ratios from 0 to 100% under strongly heat-extracted conditions is revealed. Results show that, there exists a threshold oxygen mole fraction (XO2*) below which hydrogen-enriched methane MILD combustion can be achieved as long as the inlet temperature (Tin) is above the self-ignition temperature of reactants. As the hydrogen-blending ratio increases from 0 to 100%, XO2* is reduced from 9.3 to 6.5% and thus the unconditional MILD combustion region is concentrated, implying that hydrogen addition requires a larger oxygen dilution level to sustain MILD combustion. Interestingly, the sustainable operating range of oxygen concentration to sustain hydrogen-enriched methane MILD combustion can be extended by increasing the heat extraction ratio (HER) properly, e.g., XO2* up to 13.2% at HER = 30% for pure hydrogen fuel. However, methane MILD combustion would become unstable and even extinguished once HER exceeds about 49%, whereas MILD combustion of methane blended with a high percentage of hydrogen could be sustained even under highly heat-extracted conditions, e.g., a maximum allowable HER of about 91% for pure hydrogen fuel. In pure hydrogen MILD combustion, heat extraction can further reduce NO emissions, mainly due to less NO production via the N2O-intermediate, NNH, and thermal pathways, and NO reduction by H radicals tends to be weakened with heat extraction. In conclusion, high-percentage hydrogen co-firing makes it possible to achieve stable MILD operation with low NO emissions under strongly heat-extracted conditions encountered in boilers.

The reactor-based perspective on finite-rate chemistry in turbulent reacting flows: A review from traditional to low-emission combustion

In flames, turbulence can either limit or enhance combustion efficiency by means of strain and mixing. The interactions between turbulent motions and chemistry are crucial to the behaviour of combustion processes. In particular, it is essential to correctly capture non-equilibrium phenomena such as localised ignition and extinction to faithfully predict pollutant formation. Reactor-based combustion models — such as the Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC) or Partially Stirred Reactor (PaSR) — may account for turbulence-chemistry interactions at an affordable computational cost by calculating combustion rates relying upon canonical reactors of small fluid size and timescale. The models may include multiscale mixing, detailed chemical kinetic schemes and high-fidelity multispecies diffusion treatments. Although originally derived for conventional, highly turbulent combustion, numerous recent efforts have sought to generalise beyond simple empirical correlations using more sophisticated relationships. More recent models incorporate the estimation of scales based on local variables such as turbulent Reynolds and Damköhler numbers, phenomenological descriptions of turbulence based on fractal theory or specific events such as extinction. These modifications significantly broaden the effective range of operating conditions and combustion regimes these models can be applied to, as in the particular case of Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion. MILD combustion is renown for its ability to deliver appealing features such as abated pollutant emissions, elevated thermal efficiency and fuel flexibility. This review describes the development and current state-of-the-art in finite-rate, reactor-based combustion approaches. Recently investigated model improvements and adaptations will be discussed, with specific focus on the MILD combustion regime. Finally, to bridge the gap between laboratory-scale canonical burners and industrial combustion systems, the current directions and the future outlook for development are discussed.

MILD combustion of a premixed NH3/air jet flame in hot coflow versus its CH4/air counterpart

Moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion is suitable for solving the problems of unstable flames and high NOx emissions (ENOx) of ammonia fuels; however, studies on this are rare. This paper numerically investigates the MILD combustion characteristics of a premixed NH3/air jet flame in hot coflow (JHC) under different jet equivalence ratios (ΦJ), coflow temperatures (TC), and oxygen levels (XO2,C). For comparison, similar CH4/air MILD-JHC flame characteristics are calculated. The results show that the NH3 flame generally has a lower temperature increase and heat release, as well as a larger reaction zone, than CH4. This suggests that the NH3 flame can develop into a MILD regime more easily than CH4. ENOx of the NH3 flame is two orders of magnitude higher than that of CH4 flame at all TC and XO2,C values for ΦJ < 1. At ΦJ > 1, ENOx of the NH3 flame rapidly decreases to nearly zero, but unburned NH3 emissions (ENH3) and H2 emissions (EH2) are significantly high (∼1000 ppm) and the combustion efficiency is low. Moreover, ENOx increases rapidly (gradually) with XO2,C (TC), whereas ENH3 and EH2 are considerably low at TC ≥ 1300 K and XO2,C ≥ 1% for the NH3 flame. ENOx primarily originates from NO; however, N2O is also important at low ΦJ and TC values. Therefore, considering ENOx, ENH3, EH2 and the burning efficiency, the optimal conditions for NH3 MILD combustion are ΦJ = 1, TC ≥ 1500 K, and XO2,C = 1%–3%. In addition, compared with conventional flames, NH3 MILD combustion can reduce ENOx by one to two orders of magnitude.

Numerical investigation of pressure and H2O dilution effects on NO formation and reduction pathways in pure hydrogen MILD combustion

Pure hydrogen moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion offers a potential solution to meet low NO emission needs while achieving rapid decarbonization for gas turbines. This paper reports a numerical investigation of the pressure (1–25 atm) and H2O dilution (0–60%vol, including its physical and chemical effects) influences on NO formation and reduction pathways in opposed-flow pure hydrogen diffusion MILD combustion, where the present NO sub-pathway analysis method is also evaluated. Results show that, the present NO sub-pathway analysis method with Glarborg2018 can respectively predict thermal NO, prompt NO, NO formed via NNH and N2O-intermediate, and NO reduced via CHi and H reburning reasonably well. In pure hydrogen MILD combustion, NO emission reaches its peak with the pressure up to about 6 atm due to more NO formed via N2O-intermediate, and then decreases as the pressure is further raised, which is mainly attributed to less NO formation via NNH and more NO reduction by H radicals, finally causing the dominant NO formation pathway to transform from NNH to N2O-intermediate at high pressure. The addition of H2O, mainly because of its chemical effect to inhibit the NNH and N2O-intermediate pathways via the channels NNH + O → NO and N2O + H/O → NO, results in further NO emission reduction. The top NO contributor is changed from NNH to N2O-intermediate with H2O dilution at atmospheric pressure, while at high pressure, NO formation is invariably dominated by the N2O-intermediate pathway even when H2O is added up to 60%vol. NO reduction, which is initiated by the channel NO+H(+M)⇌HNO(+M), behaves more actively at high pressure, constituting 21% of the total NO produced at 25 atm, while its importance is weakened with H2O dilution.

Heat release characteristics of ammonia flames in MILD conditions

Ammonia (NH3) combustion is an attractive energy source with zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and a potential hydrogen-combustion enabler. In addition, the availability of ammonia and its amenability to transportation make it appealing to future energy supply. To provide fundamental insights into the heat release characteristics of ammonia in moderate or intense low oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion, one-dimensional laminar and two-dimensional turbulent premixed flames are studied numerically. In particular, the flame structure and heat release distribution of ammonia and ammonia-hydrogen premixed flames are examined under conventional and MILD, and preheated conditions, respectively. The results show that stoichiometric ammonia MILD flames differ from normal ammonia flames producing NH2 earlier, which results in the formation of a radical pool that shifts the chemical pathway towards hydrogen-related chemistry. The NH2 radical serves as a precursor for the ammonia flame and characterizes the reaction zone, and plays a crucial role in bringing the explosive nature into the system. For fixed ratios of the root-mean-square turbulent velocity fluctuation to the laminar flame speed and integral length scale to the laminar flame thickness, the flame surface wrinkling is comparable between the stoichiometric ammonia flame at MILD and non-MILD conditions. Furthermore, the hydrogen enrichment of the lean ammonia flame results in a significant increase in heat release rate due to the preferential diffusion effect. The study also examines chemical markers to identify heat-releasing regions of the flames and proposes the use of NH2 × O (on a mass fraction basis) as a suitable indicator of regions with high chemical activity and correlates well with the heat release for the MILD and non-MILD ammonia flames as well as ammonia-hydrogen flames at both laminar and turbulent conditions.

Modeling of Ammonia MILD Combustion in Systems with Internal Recirculation

ABSTRACT The present work focuses on the combustion of alternative renewable fuels, ammonia in this case, in a system, such as the Laboratory Unit CYclonic (LUCY) burner. This reactor can operate under Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion conditions thanks to a strong internal recirculation of flue gases. Experimental data, including in-flame temperatures and exhaust gas composition, are available. Numerical simulations based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques are performed and compared to the experiments to analyze the suitability of existing numerical sub-models. More specifically, a sensitivity analysis is carried out both for the turbulence closure models, i.e., RNG k-ϵ, BSL k-ω and Reynolds Stress Model, and for the combustion models, i.e. Flamelet Generated Manifold, Eddy Dissipation Concept and Partially Stirred Reactor, incorporating seven different kinetic schemes.

Air-blast atomization and ignition of a kerosene spray in hot vitiated crossflow

Increasingly stringent regulations of pollutant emissions from aviation require rapid implementation of novel combustion technologies. Promising concepts based on moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion have been investigated in academia and industry. This MILD regime can be obtained from the recirculation of the hot vitiated combustion products to raise the temperature of the reactants, resulting in distributed reaction regions and lower flame temperatures. In the present work, we consider the air-blast atomization of a kerosene spray in crossflow, which enables efficient mixing between fuel and oxidizer. We investigate experimentally and numerically the effect of the spray air-to-liquid mass-flow ratio (ALR) variation on the reaction front and flame topology of a kerosene spray flame. The spray is injected transversely into a turbulent vitiated crossflow composed of the products of a lean CH4-H2 flame. The spray flame thermal power is varied between 2.5 and 5 kW, along with the atomizer ALR between 2 and 6. The experimental characterization of the reaction zone is performed using OH* chemiluminescence and OH and fuel planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF). The Large Eddy Simulations (LES) of the multiphase reactive flow provide good agreement with the experimental observations. Experiments and simulations show that the ALR governs mixing, resulting in different flame stabilization mechanisms and combustion regimes. Low ALR results in a relatively small jet-to-crossflow momentum ratio and a large spray Sauter mean diameter (SMD). A thick windward reaction region is formed due to inefficient shear layer mixing between the fuel spray and the crossflow. Meanwhile, the correspondingly large spray SMD leads to isolated penetration and localized combustion of fuel clusters. At high ALR, the higher penetration and the faster droplet evaporation due to the lower spray SMD result in an efficient entrainment-induced mixing between the two streams, forming more distributed reaction regions.

Numerical Study of Critical Recirculation Ratio for Achieving Unconditional MILD Combustion

Moderate or Intense Low Oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion is a regime in which fuels burn in a distributed reaction zone generating ultra-low emissions and no visible flame front. Also known as flameless combustion, it can be achieved by recirculating flue gases into the reaction zone. A recirculation factor based on the mass recirculated is used to characterize a flameless regime. However, the original definition of MILD is based on the temperature levels of a reactor. This work connects both criteria by introducing a parameter called recirculation ratio derived theoretically from a mass balance. The ratio was numerically calculated by simulating a network of perfectly stirred reactors and performing an energy balance using open-source software. This methodology was validated against experimental and simulated data from the literature. Simulations were carried out for methane, ethane, propane, and hydrogen under adiabatic conditions and equivalence ratios from 0.6 to 1. Results indicate that a critical recirculation ratio is required for establishing unconditional MILD combustion, which changes with fuel type and equivalence ratio. In all cases studied, the critical ratio diminishes as the equivalence ratio is reduced. Hydrogen and methane require the highest and lowest critical ratio, respectively. Results suggest that externally diluting hydrogen with carbon dioxide could potentially reduce recirculation requirements for MILD combustion.